TEA DRINKS - DRINK ANYWAY YOU LIKE IT!

F resh green tea leaves could simply be put in boiling water and the extract is consumed as such or with suitable additives!
This seems to be too much a primitive recipe! But, tea has very many ways of expressing its taste to tea lovers of the world!

Processed tea leaves or dusts when come into contact with hot water or milk readily discharge the chemical constituents that give color, taste and flavor to the liquid. The tea extract thus taken is consumed in different ways.

The raw liquor is taken with out any additive. The tea extract is sometimes taken with sugar alone. Some people wish to add sugar and milk in various propositions. Some have a liking for spiced tea. They add selected spices with tea extract and taste it in a special way.Some wish to take it ice cold also. There is a different form of tea made available to make it instantly!

Let us go to some interesting details about making of different kinds of tea drinks. We will enjoy their peculiar behavior in giving the color, taste, flavor and strength in different levels to make the tea differently to different kind of tea lovers. This is an art and a science leaving good scope for study to the people associated with tea research and tea industry as well.

Tea making at different places differs!

At home tea is made thus:

Dust tea in boiling water!

Take about 200 ml. of water in an aluminium sauce pan and bring it to boiling. Now add a tea spoonful of tea dust and allow it for boiling for about a minute. Stop boiling and close it with a lid. Decant or filter the golden liquor through a sieve. This tea decoction is mixed with equal quantity of whole hot milk and about 4 teaspoonful of sugar to taste. This will make 3 cups of hot tea!
Leaf tea in boiling water!

The same procedure is adopted for tea leaves also. Only thing needed is a little more of tea leaves and one minute extra time for boiling to make a mild flavored tea
with a special taste! Adding sugar and milk and their quantities are taster’s choice.
Tea leaves are bigger particles and they release tea liquor only when boiled for an extra minute!

Dust or leaf tea in boiling milk!

Tea drink is made by boiling the tea dusts or leaves in whole or diluted milk for about 1 or 2 minutes. The filtered milky decoction is added with required sugar. Here the tea or dust required may be a little less as the milk fat absorbs the taste giving materials quickly and fuller extent.

In all the above tea making process, you will find the taste and color varying in strength, as the size of the tea particles and also medium of extraction changes. This is a scientific truth to be observed with the future tea blending techniques!
At tea shops tea is made differently!

• There will be a copper water boiler with a small lid to pour water. The centre of the boiler has a copper tube where charcoal is partially filled and allowed to burn to heat the water in the boiler around. There will be an opening with a tap at the side of the boiler for drawing steaming hot water.
  


• A conical shaped muslin tea bag is fixed to a small metallic ring and a handle. The tea dust is taken in the bag. The boiling water is added to the tea bag and the liquor is collected in an aluminium cup.


• A number of glass tumblers are arranged in line. Hot milk and sufficient sugar is added to the tumblers. The tea decoction is also added to the tumblers and mixed one by one.
  
• Sometime the tea decoction, milk and sugar are mixed in a bigger cup. This prepared tea is then transferred to tea glass tumblers or ceramic cups and saucers and served to the consumers. Here the tea is prepared as and when people place orders.

In canteens, the tea will be prepared in good volume to serve people in groups of 50, 100 or 200s or alike. So tea is also prepared in bulk. A bigger vessel is kept on fire and about 10 litre of milk and an equal quantity of milk are mixed and boiled. About 200 grams of tea dust is also added and allowed to boil for about 5 to 10 minutes.

The tea gets extracted and filtered into a big vessel. About 1200 grams of sugar is added, mixed well and transferred into a 20 litre thermos flask for serving about 150 to 200 people.

Here, care is taken to select a tea dust which is medium sized and does not contain too much of fibres. Too small a dust and more of fibres will give too much of tasty materials in the drink. They will turn into a turbid and creamy tea making the consumer dislike it when served after sometime.

In hotels, tea is prepared in small quantities with tea leaves with wholesome milk and sufficient sugar. Sometimes, tea is extracted and served in separate tea pots with sugar and milk separately. The consumer will make his own choice of combination to mix tea with other ingredients.

There are different kinds of teas:

LEMON TEA: A light tea extract is mixed with sugar and a few drops
of lemon juice.
MASALA TEA: While boiling the tea a small quantity of powdered spices of cardamom, clove etc is added to get a special taste.

GINGER TEA: Crushed ginger is added to the boiling tea decoction and added to sugar and milk.

HERBAL TEA: There are different kinds of herbal powders with or even without real tea dusts. A pinch of it is added into the boiling water and the extract is consumed with or without sugar or milk. It is taken for a period of time for treatments like reducing blood sugar.

ICED TEA: A fancy kind of tea served with lime and mint with ice cubes in glass tumblers. This is a special tea for people who like luxury.

INSTANT TEA: A small quantity of tea dust is boiled and extracted. The extract taken in a non stick vessel is boiled and reduced into thick gravy, cooled down and dried and powered to make powered tea extract. This is used as an instant tea with hot milk and sugar.

The instant tea is made by spraying tea decoction on a hot non stick revolving drum. The instant tea powder is blended with spices for special taste.
DIP DIP TEAS:Tea dusts that release very quick liquor is packed in small quantities of about 1.5 grams in permeable membraneous paper bags with a thread attached with a tag.The tag is used for holding the tea bag. The paper bag with tea is dipped inside the sweetened milk in a cup. The tea is mixed by dipping the bag twice or thrice.